Dale's Quails

05/21/2026

A family that composts together, stays together!

What looks like “just farm work” is actually one of our favorite full-family classrooms!
Every week we turn daily chores into real, lasting lessons. Our littlest farmer starts the cycle by using his yard sweeper to collect the fresh grass clippings after mowing. We layer those into our windrows of mulch chips, water it to the perfect moisture, turn it weekly, and keep it cooking at 140–160°F.

Through this one project, the kids are learning and reinforcing so much:

The complete closed-loop system: Yard waste (grass + chips,branches,debris) → hot compost → rich soil → garden vegetables that feed our family and others → kitchen scraps and more grass go right back in. Nothing wasted — everything circles back to feed the land and us.

Biology & life cycles: Watching grass grow, get mowed, collected, decomposed by microbes/fungi/bugs, and turned into soil that grows new plants. Full circle from photosynthesis to decomposition.

Chemistry in action: Nitrogen (green grass) + Carbon (woodchips,debris) = microbial heat party! The science of why the pile steams and breaks down material.

Scientific method & observation: Checking temperature, moisture (wrung-out sponge test), smells, and changes over time — real data collection, hypothesizing, and adjusting.

Math & measurement: Calculating pile volume, grass-to-woodchip ratios, timing turns, tracking temperature — practical numbers in real life.

Engineering & mechanics: How the yard sweeper works, simple machines, and problem-solving when equipment gets stuck or needs fixing and adjusting.

Responsibility, teamwork & stewardship: Everyone has a job. The kids see how their daily efforts directly grow food and care for the land that provides for us.

Patience & perseverance: Composting doesn’t happen overnight — it teaches delayed gratification and the reward of consistent effort.

This is homeschooling at its best — messy, real, and meaningful. We’re not just feeding our garden, family and community … we’re growing capable, curious kids who understand where their food comes from and how to work with nature.
Who else turns everyday farm chores into hands-on learning adventures?

05/18/2026

What a weekend😬

Firstly, order update. We FINALLY made it through April on orders and started May. For some insight.. we generally build 20-25 a week, however, your support has been tremendous this year and even at 30-35 orders going out weekly, we still were/are behind. I can assure you we aren't "holding your money hostage " as some self entitled small business owner tried to hit us with this month🤦‍♂️🤣. We are still having growing pains regarding the new UPS depot we are dealing with... not a fan btw. We had a great team and system going with the previous depot and now I can see that we may have taken that for granted.

Secondly, we had planned on fencing in the garden this summer sometime but the deer and rabbit population in our area and on our property is crazy high. While filling the freezers this fall should be a breeze, filling our pantry and the pantries of our local community will not be as they clear the garden plants nightly. We decided to put in the fence around the acre sized garden and thought we'd get it done over the weekend..Swing and a miss ha! Posts and gates are in and stage 1 of 3 for wire is about 1/2 done. Definitely a bigger task than we anticipated but it's coming out exactly as we thought it would. Should have it finished in the next couple evenings after putting in our shop hours. Then we can start getting our starts in the ground and the 2nd round of succession seeds in.

Third... BOUNDARIES....
As a small family farm and business, we do our best to stay on top of communication with our customers and make ourselves available as much as possible but we also have allot on our plate. Homeschooling, planting, preserving, planning, repairs and shop work are just the surface of what we have going on. Emailing, calling,texting and messaging outside of normal business hours and on weekends will not generally get a response until we are available during normal hours. Please respect those boundaries. We do not have a secretary to answer the phone and check emails /messages 24/7, we are not Amazon lol.

Thank you all for the incredible support and patience you've shown us over the years and for the motivation to keep on keeping on. The feedback, the recommendations, pictures of completed kits and the excitement you have for your quail are all seen, heard and felt by us. We truly appreciate it all.

Happy Hatching
-Dale's Quails Team

05/04/2026

Welcome back!

Coturnix / Japanese quail for homesteading and self-sufficiency. Find Coturnix jumbo quail and quail eggs for sale, plus get free resources to help you hatch and raise quail for meat and eggs in your own backyard!

05/03/2026

Between the breaths…

The days on the farm don’t slow down much. One minute we’re planting in the market garden, the next we’re checking the high tunnels, picking up lumber,tending the chicken coops, connecting with the sheep and goats (and our quail!), and turning these giant windrows of woodchips into tomorrow’s garden gold.

But every now and then we make ourselves stop.
We take a deep breath, look around at what we already have, and just smile.

A free load of fresh mulch that will feed the soil for years.
The littlest farmer conquering the “mountain” with pure joy.
The land, the work, each other, and the slow, steady progress toward the goals we’re chasing.

We’re also gaining good traction on cage orders — the rest of the early April orders will head out on Tuesday, and we’ll start building the 12th and up orders on Monday. Should have through the 18th-20th out on Friday's pickup.Thank you for riding with us through the move, the storms and the busy season.

This whole journey is built on using every avenue that shows up — woodchips for paths, manure from local farms, soil building, easy compost, and everything in between. It’s all part of it.

So today we’re simply grateful for right now.
For the dirt on our hands, the sun on our faces, and the life we’re growing one breath at a time.

Wherever you are on your own road… take a second today to enjoy what you already have.
What’s one thing you’re thankful for in this season? 💚
We’d love to hear it in the comments.

04/24/2026

The sun shines it's brightest right after the storm. Last week taught us so much about our new property, forced us to dig in deeper than ever before (pun intended) and truly tested our fortitude not only as a farming family but as small business owners. We were able to conquer the major issues efficiency and effectively to help prevent them from happening again (hopefully) and rebound back into our normal...ish routine.

Expansion continued on the farm with new additions like icelandic sheep , market garden layout finalized and beds already being formed and we were able to harvest a few gallons of honey from one of our hives as well as get another hive going. 3 of our high tunnels are back up and running, albeit soggy ground but we will work around that. Even got some creek panning in with our littlest farmer.

Shop work finally started midweek and we were able to just about finish off the last of March orders prior to our pickup this morning and are currently starting April orders. Yes,we are still behind a bit but that's just extra motivation for us to push that extra hour or so a day. Goal is to be back within our comfort zone of 2 weeks by next week.

The patience we are receiving from our customers is outstanding and appreciated more than words can convey, thank you.

Happy Hatching
-Dale's Quails Team

04/18/2026

Storm damage/order update;

So much for catching a break from mother nature. Last night was wild for our area and as a state entirely. Our property alone has severe damage that we are currently addressing.

-The berm keeping our natural spring from flooding our lower paddocks, pastures,barn and market garden gave out ,flooding everything below it.

-The small creek running alongside our property is flowing like a rafting river,unsafe for our livestock to utilize for the next few days.

- Our main fence line was directly struck by lightning, still surveying the damage and working on a remedy and a large portion of it is underwater so... swimming in 40 degree weather it is😅

-none of our orders that shipped out yesterday have been scanned in by ups as of this morning, I'm assuming due to the tornado that touched down near the depot or the sever flooding they are also experiencing. We all got hit right about the time our stuff scans in at the depot. Will be following up with them directly Monday, to give them time to address their issues. I'm sure they have systems and SOP for these scenarios as it UPS lol.

-all livestock, pets and humans are alive and mostly dry. House and workshop are on high ground thankfully.

We will be slow to respond to msgs due to whats on our plate so please be patient. Please share this info if you see others asking why we aren't responding, that would be a huge help.

We can't thank you all enough for your support and we will bounce back quickly . Stay safe and dry!

-Happy Hatching
Dale's Quails Team

04/16/2026

This spring is really testing our coping mechanisms..healthy and not healthy ones 😬 Now 3 days in a row we have had to spend several hours prepping our livestock for severe weather, hang out in the basement for our own safety, then spend several hours aftward in repairs and damage control.... we are THIS close to being back within our 2 week window on cage kits and about 3 weeks away from finishing our market garden prep.. cmon nature, work with us a little would ya.

04/07/2026

From our hearts to yours ❤️

These past 5 years with all of you have been nothing short of incredible. Thank you — truly — for every like, comment, share, cage order, kind word, and show of support as we grew our little quail homestead. Your encouragement kept us going through the long days in the workshop and the “just one more thing” moments that turned into sunrise-to-sunset builds.

Now we’re stepping into an exciting new chapter: **Dales Quails Acres** — our expanded farm, market garden, and future CSA right here on the new property. We’re still building quirky quail cages (and growing that workshop!), but we’re also diving even deeper into full-time homesteading, market farming, and raising the next generation on the land.

This weekend proved it all over again. In the middle of monsoon rains, frost, and heavy winds, we tackled repairing, replacing, and restringing 2 acres of 8-strand electric fence — complete with water crossings. We’d never done anything like it before. There were hard lessons, a few scars, and plenty of choice words yelled into the wind! 😅

But every bit of stress and exhaustion melted away the moment the goats arrived today. The pure joy on our littles’ faces — their laughter, their excitement, their love for these animals and this land — reminded us why we do all of this. The trials of business owners, full-time homesteaders, and (fingers crossed) soon-to-be successful market farmers disappear when we see the next generation truly connecting with their environment.

We do this for them… and we’re so grateful to share the journey with you.

Stay tuned as we share more about Dales Quails Acres — fence lessons (the funny and the painful), goat adventures, garden plans, and everything in between. We can’t wait to keep growing with you!

Who else has turned a tough farm day into pure family joy? Drop your stories below — we love hearing them.

03/22/2026

This is how we spend our Saturdays: sunrise to way-past-sunset, building cages, setting up the farm, and tackling one “just one more thing” after another.

Our days start before 6 AM (the coffee hasn’t even woken up yet) and usually wind down around 11 PM. We’re tired, we’re dirty, and we’re loving every single minute of it.

We feel so blessed to be on this beautiful property. And honestly? Seeing the kids running around, laughing, and making farm memories makes the long hours disappear in an instant.

Hard work, big love, and a little bit of chaos—this is our happy place.

How are your weekends going? Are you in full hustle mode too, or are you mastering the art of relaxing? We’d love to hear!

03/12/2026

You just know it's going to be a great day when all the manure in the fields is frozen, the hand well is still flowing and the GQF is freshly stocked with Beam Farm eggs. We tend to be quite picky when it comes to getting eggs from farms as its not just bird quality we look for. We also make our judgments based on the farm itself..Who they are...What they stand for... Why they do what they do.
Beam Farm gets 100% hatch rate in those categories. Highly recommend heading over to their website;

https://www.beamfarmllc.com/

and checking out their YouTube channel;

https://youtube.com/?si=niWz3SUM3JQmgjAQ

They are also listed on our resource page.

Happy Hatching
-Dale's Quails Team

Why Coturnix Quail?Coturnix quail, which are also commonly referred to as Japanese quail, are small yet highly prolific birds that are native to various regions in Asia and certain parts of Europe. Typically, these birds weigh between 5 to 10 ounces, and they are easily recognizable due to their dis...